In recent years, the size and liquidity of the financial and capital markets has increased in response to governmental deregulation and other contributing factors. Consequently, services traditionally performed by disparate organizations such as mutual fund services, conventional brokerage services, retirement accounts, etc. are now commonly being offered and managed by a single organization. Further, the parallel development of the Internet and other forms of electronic communication have substantially increased the speed in which organizations must provide customer service and information requests. Because of these increasing demands, the support infrastructure of such organizations has struggled to provide prompt and accurate customer service information.
For example, a conventional financial services customer support system typically includes a toll-free telephone number which customers or potential customers may call to obtain specific or general information about their account or potential account. In response to a call, a customer service representative (CSR) would attempt to retrieve the requested information in real-time while the user waits on the line. The information with which the CSR has access to typically includes a combination of computer-based information as well as hard-copy information. Unfortunately, as the number of services offered by an organization increases, the ability for a CSR to accurately and quickly obtain the relevant information decreases, leading to increased call hold times and degraded customer service metrics and satisfaction. Because of the lack of a comprehensive and easily navigable source for all relevant information, the CSR must marry a myriad of information sources on-the-fly in providing accurate information to the caller.
Taking just the specific single case of mutual fund services, accessing and relating any one of the multiple categories of information which a customer or potential customer may inquire about is particularly difficult, let alone in real-time. Mutual funds information alone typically includes a vast spectrum of information, such as the investment fund type; its class, its yield, return, dividend, and cost information; a breakdown of the constituent equities making up the fund and their respective percentages; the particular fund's redemption policies; state and federal tax information; etc. Further, any given financial services organization may offer thousands of different mutual funds. This renders the task presented to CSR's in conventional systems increasingly difficult.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art of financial services information systems for a comprehensive method and system for providing financial service information to CSR's in substantially real-time.